We Are The Fallen
by wee-lepricauns-Inc
Summary: Post Not Fade Away. L.A is nothing but piles of Ash and broken buildings. Spike and Angel are left as the only survivors. But what's Buffy doing in L.A and why is she a vampire?
1. PrologueDeath Defying

**New story! Fic request from BellaVision so the idea behind the story is not mine. I just write the story. Enjoy. **

"We're not going to find anyone if you search your whole bloody life." Spike groaned the words out, placing a blood red hand on his tattered shirt. He and Angel were now staggering around the burnt remains of L.A. The once black roads were now even blacker with dust and ashes covering every inch. The city smelled of death, no longer could you smell the faint aroma of the beach – everything pleasant had been burned or killed off. The only reason the two of them were barely surviving was because of one thing and one thing only. Luck. That and confusion, the armies of hell demon's the senior partners spewed forth were strong but had very little brains to match the brawn. Eventually they started killed off each other by accident which had evened the fight down considerably.

"You don't know that…" Angel was determined to find someone, anyone. The battle had lasted more than a day, two or even more maybe – he'd lost track of time.

"I damn well do, this is a ghost town now, I know it, you know it, Lord knows the senior partners know it!" Spike was sick of Angel's optimism at a time like this. Both of their minds recalled the previous events of the battle, bringing back harsh memories of bloodshed and horror.

---

"_Let's go to work!" Angel proclaimed as he ran forward, Spike, Gunn and Illyria ran forward with him. There wasn't a doubt in anyone's mind that they were on the losing side of this battle, but they didn't care. Backing out after coming this far was just pathetic and they might as well go out fighting. _

"_Dragon, one-o-clock!" Gunn pointed his battle-axe towards the sky where sure enough a dark coloured beast was flying above them. Obliviously setting fire to surrounding buildings._

"_I wish to slay the army." Illyria yelled over the roar of the dragon _

"_50 thousand minions of hell, no problem blue." Spike wiped a gash on his forehead and turned to Illyria "if we take out the army you wanna take on the dragon?" Spike offered Angel as though the situation was just another day at the office. _

"_Sounds like a plan." Angel replied, nervousness leaking into his voice. Spike, Illyria and Gunn charged forward and began throwing their weapons around mindlessly, hitting anything that moved. Gunn had his lucky axe that his old gang had made for him, it had served him well and it made quick clean slices out of the hell demons. Illyria had two things, a sword and her power (granted her power was less than it once was, but it was still enough). Her speed and her quick movement made fast work of anything that came within even a meters range of her. Spike had a sword and a dagger he'd stolen from the brethren when he'd returned the baby to its original mother. His movements were slower than Illyria's but faster than Gunn's, not to mention his vampire strength was quite an asset to have in this battle. _

"_Their numbers are decreasing!" Illyria boomed punching a hole clean through a skeletal looking demon that barely had time to react before it hit the ground _

"_Angel, now might be a good time for some heroics," Gunn yelled back and then jolted as a rusted long knife cut through his rib cage. He turned around to see a demon at least three times as tall as him; with a final gasp he threw his axe directly for its forehead. Luckily for him the demons flesh was weak and exposed and the axe cut clean through to its brain. The demon toppled down to the pavement with a deafening crash, the force of the demons landing pushed Gunn back. He flew backward into a brick wall, his blood painting the bricks a darker red. Angel ran forward, knowing full well that the force of the attack had surely killed Gunn. _

"_Come on Charles, you cant back out, not right now!" he yelled to the unresponsive body. Angel used his common sense and decided instead of talking to a dead body he should be finding the dragon that was his main concern as it could have gone anywhere._

"_Forehead, you thinking of lending a hand?" Spike asked as a demon managed to claw some skin off his upper arm, Spike responded by slitting its throat with his skillfully crafted dagger. _

"_Where's the dragon?" Angel asked, looking around him frantically, hoping it would just roar and give it away but he had no such luck. Illyria and Spine had fought off at least a quarter of the army and both were already baring deep gashes and excess sweat, even Illyria looked like she needed a break. _

"_I fear we are doomed to lose this battle!" she called to Spike _

"_We've been losing since it started." Was all he said in reply as he noticed something behind Angel "Dragon!" he yelled and Angel turned and ran a separate way from the others and the dragon followed. Whilst running from the beastly thing he picked up part of building that was must've fallen down and threw it into the dragons left eye causing it to swerve dangerously and crash into a tower. In a blind frenzy the dragon swerved and dived towards where Illyria and Spike were fighting the army. The dragon shot out a final burst of fire and the flames consumed Illyria. Illyria screamed a high-pitched, bat-like cry as the flames consumed every inch of her being. The reaction to her own essence being burned caused what was almost like an explosion only larger and the flames had turned green. The flames ricochet back at the dragon, which let out a piercing howl almost as terrifying as Illyria's deathly cries. The range of the blast managed to hit and kill well over half of the remaining army. Angel staggered back onto the scene and joined Spike; side-by-side they raised their weapons. _

"_So why are we doing this again?" Spike asked, he was rather inclined to just give up right about now, he was growing too tired to fight back every single one of these demons _

"_For the team." Angel responded and held out his hand for Spike to take _

"_That old trick again?" Spike had to admit, it was a pretty effective trick and they were somewhat low on options. He took Angels hand and took his end of the string, and ran to the opposite side of the street and he and Angel tightened the string so it could barely move. The army ran forward unaware of the string and in a matter of seconds almost 50 demons lay beheaded and unconscious on the gravel. _

"_And the rest?" Spike yelled across the street _

"_Kill them all." Angel commanded and Spike nodded and they went halves on the demons. By the time they finished they were already close to death and the stench of hundreds of rotting demon bodies wasn't exactly helping either of them. The battle was over and L.A was gone. _

_---_

"What is that?" Spike pointed to the Hyperion, which besides the burn marks on the outside and the bloodstained walls looked relatively intact.

"The hotel… I don't believe it." Angel walked toward it as though he were in a trance, Spike followed but stopped when Angel refused to walk into the hotel.

"Thought you wanted to check for survivors?" Spike asked curiously

"There are no survivors." Angel quoted Spike's previous statement and they both jumped when they head a loud metal banging noise from an alleyway just near to hotel.

"You were saying?" Spike raised an eyebrow as they both took off in the direction of the noise. It was a fight, so that meant there were at least tow survivors. As they rounded the corner both Angel and Spike suddenly felt a familiar presence was near them. When they turned the corner they saw a burly looking vampire fighting a small blonde girl.

"Buffy?" they both questioned in unison, Buffy turned around in surprise but it was Angel and Spike who were most shocked. Her face was contorted and bumpy, her teeth were now fangs and her eyes looked bloodshot.

"No…" Angel almost fell over; it felt like his heart would break. He couldn't understand how something like this could have happened. Buffy was the slayer, there was no way in hell she would go and get herself turned. Spike on the other hand had already put two and two together and he knew that the vampire she was fighting had sired her.

"You drank from him?" Spike questioned as vamp-Buffy backed away fearfully, she was scared now. She was scared they would have no choice but to stake her, and she didn't want to die again.

"I had no choice," her voice didn't sound any different even if she looked like a whole different person "don't kill me." She pleaded with tears in her eyes looking back and forth between Angel and Spike who looked completely stunned

"Not gonna hurt you love," Spike promised, as it seemed Angel was lost for words – or actual movement of any kind right now. He couldn't help but think that this whole thing was his fault somehow. Spike however was beyond shock now, he had moved right onto blind fury. He broke off a chair leg (though a very burnt looking chair leg) the sun was almost back up and they needed to get Buffy inside somewhere. The hotel was probably their best bet right now.

"No!" Buffy squealed and blocked her chest from the stake but Spike ran past her and threw a punch right into her sire's face.

"You killed her!" he shouted angrily and continued punching him in the face. The burly vampire was backed up against a bloody wall and Spike looked like he had completely lost all self-awareness "You killed her and then you made her drink!" he stopped hitting and took a good long look at Buffy who seemed lost and confused, the bite mark was still visibly fresh on her neck. A day old at the most, he drove the stake as hard as he could through the vampire's heart until the stake hit the wall and there nothing left but a large pile of ashes.

"Spike… Angel…" Buffy whimpered, she'd become a vampire but she hadn't lost herself in the bloodlust – not yet.

"Help me." She pleaded as her features returned to normal and the pain was even more apparent on her face now. Angel leapt up from the ground and with Spikes help showed her the way back to the hotel. Each man held one of her arms in theirs and each of the men were equally frightened by the fact her heart was no longer beating. They got inside the hotel, just in time to see the sun begin to rise. It felt so eerie watching the dawn of a new day when they were in a town where almost everybody was a corpse now.

"How did this happen?" Angel questioned as Buffy took a seat down on the circular couch in the middle of the room, which was remarkably still intact

"Why were you here? I thought you were in Rome?" Spike asked, and Buffy looked up in his familiar blue eyes. She was thankful that there was no one in this town with blood pumping through their veins; the hunger was easier to deal with that way.

"You really wanna know?" she asked, her voice suddenly darker, like they had touched on an unmentionable topic. Spike and Angel nodded quickly

"Who sent you here? Was it Wolfram and Hart?" Angel jumped to the only conclusion he could think of under the current conditions

"No, Angel you're way off" it sounded as though she were laughing, a small desperate kind of laugh "it was Giles."

**Okay! First chapter done! I hope you guys liked the battle scene, I had to go back and watch that scene just to check that everything was right. Reviews would be greatly appreciated!**


	2. A Friend in Common

**Quick Note – this story will contain large amounts of Spuffy, Fangel and just sprinkles of Bangel (but only at the start). **

**Disclaimer – I do not own Angel. Joss Whedon does along with oodles of cash.**

"Giles?" Angel was torn between anger and disbelief

"The Watcher?" Spike could to some extent see that possibility but it didn't change how unlikely it was "you're sure?" he eyed her carefully and she looked bitter. Not only did she look bitter, she looked hurt, scared and lost. Not the usual way for a newly made vampire to behave.

"Oh, I'm sure." She replied clutching angrily at the material of her jeans, her nails digging through the fabric and scratching her skin.

"What's the matter?" Spike titled his head, noticing a spark of something he recognized well

"It's nothing…" she shook her head then looked out the window "so… I'm guessing I missed something pretty huge?" she looked at charred remains of L.A to the two men standing with bewildered expressions

"Apocalyptic battle, don't think you really missed out." Angel answered, pain in his voice from losing all of his team, Spike didn't really count as part of the team in his eyes. He did however not expect Wesley to have died; a small part of him thought Gunn was surely going to be the first to die in battle. He hated acknowledging that part of him more than any other.

"Oh." Buffy mouthed, the air around them stiffened to the point of awkwardness

"Why would Giles send you out here?" Spike changed the subject back to the original topic

"Slayer test… apparently I've been slacking off lately," she explained "so he sent me here to meet with some vamped-out Shaman who apparently couldn't resist attacking me during meditation." She rolled her eyes, she still wondered if Giles had set her up

"You meditate?" Spike couldn't see such a hotheaded girl reaching ultimate relaxation through meditation.

"No, but it was a requirement, sharpen my senses or something stupid like that," she addressed Spike with a hand clutching her shirt "Giles forgot to mention that it was underground, when I woke up… I got burnt." She held up her arm for the others to see. Her hand was coloured a dark red, parts of it almost blackening, her arm a washy pink colour, but painful all the same.

"The sun…" Angel muttered, knowing all too well the fear she must be feeling as the sun was rising for the first time in her vampire-life.

"Ironically, not so much fun-in-the-sun when you're dead." She joked but her voice cracked as she finished

"I'll kill him for this," Angel promised "do you want me to go kill him for you?" he asked, as though it were polite.

"No, but could you ring him? Tell him you found me, but tell him not to come looking, I don't want to see him anytime soon." She stated, clutching ever tighter to her pale beige coloured shirt.

"I'll be back soon, will you be okay?" he asked worriedly

"Spike's here, I'll be fine." She smiled and Angel left the room feeling a looming cloud of jealousy hanging over his head. Spike on the other hand was elated, he hadn't seen her in over a year now, and she trusted him still after all this time.

"How's the good fight?" Buffy questioned him casually

"Over," he replied looking into her eyes, trying to find a hint that she wasn't Buffy anymore but finding nothing but her usual innocent green orbs "we lost." He added letting his eyes flicker over the dreadful scene outside the window.

"But not without a fight." Buffy guessed and then grimaced

"What's wrong?" Spike questioned, rushing over to her and sitting down on the circular couch right beside her, a hand on her back. He noted she seemed somewhat thinner (if that were even possible) and her back was trembling. He would have given it more thought if he weren't too busy swimming in the fact that she was really here and he could really feel her. It felt surreal, like any moment he'd wake and find he was a sodding ghost again.

"Promise you wont gets totally grossed out?" he nodded and she turned to him, her face showed nothing but guilt "I'm really, _really_ hungry." She muttered and he laughed

"That's all it is?" he chuckled, he always found her worries to be rather endearing "I can promise you that it's nothing too bad, just hold it in." Spike advised, not fully understanding the extent to which Buffy was starving

"No, Spike, it's not the kind of hunger that's just going to pass, I need something, _anything."_ She begged him

"Oh." He seemed to gather his sense before he said something stupid "I don't actually know where to get blood anymore, all the butchers here would've been… well butchered." He hinted and she looked towards the floor

"It hurts." She whispered

"I know. It'll pass." He assured her, since he'd been through the transformation too; only he knew it helped with someone standing by your side. Granted he had a future-seeing-insane-talking-vampire by his side at that time. But it still helped to know he wasn't alone completely.

"Why would he send me away?" she questioned, tears filling her undead eyes for the first time "how could he put me through this?" she sobbed wiping apathetically at the overflow of tears on her face.

"He said the Shaman wasn't a vampire…" Angel spoke from behind the counter, he slammed his cell phone shut angrily "which means he's not a traitor but a liar too!" he growled and kicked a pillar with all his might.

"Traitor? To me yes, but what has he done to you?" she asked, sniffling, putting a lid firmly back down on her emotions. She hadn't meant for them to come spilling out like they had but it seemed Spike just had that sort of presence for her, even now.

"A while back, Fred was dying… he refused to help us." Angel stated, sorrow ever-present in his voice.

"Fred? Who's Fred?" Buffy looked back and forth between them, both of their expression looked as if someone had died. Then it dawned on her

"She died didn't she?" it was hardly even a question, the answer was clear as day "I'm so sorry, I can't believe he'd ignore a call like that." She shook her head; he no longer held the same father-like authority he used to. He'd betrayed her and misused her trust too many times for her to see him as anything good anymore.

"Neither could we." Angel replied, crossing his arms. The subject of death made him uncomfortable, he'd witnessed too much for it to be a casual topic anymore

"Was it bad?" she asked, hoping the stop the awkward silence

"Yeah," Angel replied

"Poor girls body got hijacked by a big-blue-Old-One." Spike added

"Hijacked? What?" Buffy had only heard about the Old Ones in Giles' rantings back in High School.

"Used her body like a bloody puppet," Spike explained "it wasn't all bad though, she ended up fighting for us on more than a few occasions!" Spike added in defense for Illyria since she had helped him before – one or two times.

"What about the rest of your little gang?" Buffy asked, not so much excited, as she was generally curious. She wondered what had happened to Cordelia since she'd left – she was even interested in how Wesley had been.

--

The swapped stories for hours, until everyone was utterly stunned from the overload of information from both sides. Buffy was curled up with her arms around her knees when Angel suddenly had an idea

"Can you wait here again? I'll find you a room later." He promised and Buffy nodded

"Oh don't worry, I can do that!" Spike smirked at Angels look of annoyance

"No, it's my hotel, I'll do it." Angel insisted

"Technically it's just another building in a ghost town now," Spike corrected him with a look of happy superiority "you're in No-mans-land now Cap'n Forehead." He grinned as Angel glared at him and left the room

"Fine then Spikey, do what you like." He growled as Buffy and Spike proceeded upstairs to pick out rooms for them. Spike was rather amused since he himself had only seen the hotel once on his way out of town. Angel rolled his eyes and walked over to his old desk, which was completely bare, he'd cleaned the place out himself last year. He pulled out his phone and dialed the only number that might work

"Hey, who's this?" a familiar husky voice greeted him on the other line

"Faith, it's Angel." He replied and he overhead someone else talking in the background and Faith yelled something that sounded like 'no one!' then the sound of feet pounding on wood.

"What's up? Haven't heard from you in a while!" she seemed excited now

"Yeah well there's a reason for that." He laughed a little

"And that would be what? No reception for the past one and a half years?" she joked

"No, but recently, L.A got cooked up medium-rare." He informed her

"I don't get it." Faith admitted and Angel felt the corners of his mouth twitch upwards

"Big battle, fire, demons – the whole Wolfram and Hart employee package," he sighed then remembered something she might like "oh and dragons too!"

"Dragons? You kidding me? How big?" she answered him with so much excitement she felt like she could squeal like a teenaged girl.

"Huge, at least 10 meters long." Angel bragged, they had once joked about who would see dragon first back when Faith was in jail. She had insisted that they were real but he had rejected that idea – until now that is.

"Okay now I know your lying to me." She laughed anyway

"Where do you think all the fire came from?"

"Really?"

"Really."

"Wicked," she said after a pregnant pause "so what did you really call for? Surely there's something going down. The Angel I know doesn't have time to ring friends now that he's some big CEO guy!" she scolded him mockingly

"Yeah Buffy's here," he said quickly then got right down to the point "I'm going to ask a favor from you." He warned and she snorted

"Like you haven't earned it," she said, she was still thankful for Angel helping in the past, she'd probably be dead had it not been for his persistence "ask away Soul Boy." She gave him to go ahead so he took it.

"Would you mind coming down to L.A?" he wondered

"I guess not, what's the cause?" she pushed the question again

"Friend in need of help," he stated and Faith naturally assumed that one of his friends was in danger, not the other way around.

"Yeah, shouldn't be a problem, when do you need me?" she asked, ready to take in the details of the situation now

"Soon would be better," He hinted "and if you really hurry I can show you a dead dragon." He joked, he wasn't entirely sure if any of the dragon remained after Illyria's display of power back in the battle.

"Who is it?"

"Someone special, also one last thing?" he asked "bring blood with you." He pleaded and the other line went silent besides from Faith's even breathing

"Have you gone bad again?" she accused

"What?" Angel seemed hurt that she would think that "no! It's not for me, just trust me on this please." His voice sounded tired now, more worry in it now as he heard footsteps from the level above him. Spike and Buffy were still busy checking out rooms to sleep in.

"Fine, but if I get there and you're all badass again, I will kill you." She promised

"Glad you'd do that, but I'm not evil," he said, annoyance apparent in his voice "oh and I'd prefer if you didn't tell many people about the blood okay? Make it animal blood." He sounded like he was making a grocery list

"What else would I do? Bring you a live human to nibble on? Not likely." She sounded like she was shaking her head at him

"Will you do it?" Angel asked; secretly wanting to go check up on how Buffy was holding up – he knew the hunger was the worst part of being turned.

"Just who do you think you're talking to?" she replied in mock hurt "I'll be there soon, two days tops, depends how long it takes to drive all the way out." She replied, thinking about the long motorbike ride ahead of her.

"Thanks"

"Not a problem."

"And Faith?"

"Yeah?"

"Hurry."

**Next chapter will be up in 4 or 5 days, I'm going back and changing some parts and adding new bits in, reviews! **


	3. Dwelling On the Past

**Huge apology for the delay, but my Muse got all burned out while I was writing this, give her a moment and I'll get my second wind! Promise! To be on the safe side though, updates will be once a week, more than likely on Sundays. **

"_Buffy, a word please?" Giles asked as nicely as he could and Buffy got up from a circle of Slayers and bounded towards her Watcher. _

"_What's up?" she asked but Giles was interrupted by yet another eruption of laughter from the circle. It seemed the 'training' had been transformed into 'talking', which was then downgraded to 'gossiping'. It wasn't exactly what Giles had in mind._

"_I'd like to talk about your training." Giles got down to the point right away._

"_Oh, that," Buffy bit her lip, "I swear we're about to, Kennedy just had this really funny story and I didn't want to be rude or anything…" Buffy fished her mind for the best excuses but came up empty._

"_You are ignoring your duties." Giles said with an accusatory tone. _

"_Giles I was talking, besides it's them that need the training… I've been trained. Remember? You were there." Buffy replied defiantly._

"_You've been neglecting your calling so you can dally about with a group of pre- pubescent girls and chit-chat about boys!" Giles eyed her angrily and she crossed her arms._

"_Who made you King of Slayer Hill?" Buffy mumbled under her breath. _

"_Now, I've been putting a lot of thought into this and –"_

"_Thought? Thought about what?" Buffy jumped quickly to conclusions. _

"_I've organized for you to meet with a Shaman, he'll re-awaken your slayer spirit, get you back on track… something I've quite clearly failed to do…" Giles said with a sigh. _

"_Oh, yeah because these Slayer journey's always end so well for us!" Buffy pointed out sarcastically and Giles gave her a rather fatherly look. _

"_It'll just be for a few weeks, and he's a trusted affiliate with the Watchers council, or rather he was considering there is no council anymore." Giles waited for Buffy's reaction._

"_Where is this Shaman?" Buffy allowed him that much. _

"_Close to L.A, a small town in the middle of the desert, he'll meet you in the town square." Giles handed her a piece of paper with an address scribbled on it. _

"_Hm, middle of nowhere, that's a comforting thought!" Buffy rolled her eyes and gave Giles another suspicious look. _

"_I'll go, but you gotta let these girls learn at their own pace." Buffy commanded _

"_I think a fast-paced approach might be easier for them though…" Giles corrected her but Buffy gave him her age-old stubborn you-are-not-changing-my-mind look. _

"_Believe it or not Giles, not everyone likes being pushed around." She said then bumped shoulders on her way outside. _

_--_

_THREE DAYS LATER_

"_Excuse me? Miss Summers?" a noticeably aged Texan accent greeted her, she spun around to meet the stranger with cautious eyes. He wasn't overly tall and he had a fair amount of excess weight, though his face looked trustworthy enough._

"_That's me." Buffy smiled politely._

"_Rupert informed me of your arrival today… come on in, no need t'be shy!" he ushered her inside from the doorway he stood under. He looked remarkably pale for someone living in the middle of a desert. Buffy just shrugged it off, assuming that since he was a shaman he probably didn't get outside much anyway. _

"_So how long have you been slaying vampires?" he asked casually._

"_About 8 years now… almost nine." Buffy guessed, it was hard to understand if he meant how long had she been successfully slaying or how long she'd been called for. _

"_How interesting." Though he hardly sounded as though he were. _

"_Guess so," Buffy shrugged "so are we gonna do this Slayer recharge or what?" Buffy asked, clearly uncomfortable, they reached a long flight of stairs that went down, Buffy wondered if it were leading to a basement or a cave or something. _

"_Have you ever loved a vampire?" he asked in the silence as he led her down the stairs _

"_What?" Buffy seemed completely offended by the question "how does that have anything to do with me being a good slayer?" she creased her eyebrows together in anger. _

"_Answer the question Miss Summers." He demanded _

"_Don't order me around." Buffy retorted, no longer feeling the need to be nice to this man, if he was going to be snappy then so was she. _

"_So you can talk about your hate towards vampire-kind but you cannot talk about your love?" he observed and she flinched at the comment. _

"_What's that supposed to mean?" she questioned through clenched teeth. _

"_That you fear openness. You're comfort lies within what you know, what you fight against, what your sure of… outside of that zone you feel conflicted and boxed, a feeling that you fear." He stated and she glared at the back of his head. _

"_Can we just do this thing, I'm not into small talk with strangers." She mumbled and he nodded knowingly as they continued down the stairs into what would be one her last days on this earth as a human. _

_--_

"You bloody git!" Spike glared at Angel who returned the look with equal annoyance. Buffy however was sitting on top of the desk downstairs watching the tow bicker over the most trivial and pointless matters.

"I have it under control!" Angel replied and glanced at Buffy "and I'm sure Buffy can handle herself, she's a strong girl!" Angel said and Buffy jumped off the bench.

"Hey, I'm not involved in this…" she said and Spike nodded.

"She's a new vampire, what do you think the scent of human blood's gonna do to her? I mean did you even think about this?" Spike bellowed and Angel crossed his arms.

"Yes, unlike you I can actually think!"

"Oh yeah that's really mature Forehead." Spike rolled his crystal blue eyes.

"Stop it both of you!" Buffy said pushing them both away from each other, a hand placed on each chest. She then huffed and looked at Spike.

"We don't know what affect blood will have on me, besides I doubt Faith would let me hurt her like that," she said purposefully to him "and you," she raised her voice a few levels and turned her attention to Angel "would be wise not to mention the 'B' word in front of me before I start drinking from you... Okay?" she looked back and forth between them making sure they'd understood.

"Yeah…" Spike said with a prolonged exhale.

"Fine." Angel forced himself to say the word out loud.

"Good." Buffy said brushing herself off "now if you'll stop being stupid for five minutes I need to use the phone." Buffy said walking towards it.

"To call who?" Angel said quickly taking the phone off the receiver before she could get to it. Buffy cast him an annoyed look.

"To make a prank phone call, I'm calling Dawn, Dawn my sister." Buffy snatched the phone from him grasp "unless of course that's against the rules?" she added grumpily.

"What? Oh… no… Dawn's okay to ring I guess…" Angel replied much less confidently than he had previously been talking.

"Well I'm gonna go outside and look around…" Spike announced looking outside in the empty darkness. It would have been scary but L.A was so completely lacking in human life now that it posed no threat – demons didn't come to uninhabited towns like these.

"Take your time." Angel said with a quick glance at Buffy who was listening intently to a dial tone with a nervous expression. Spike ignored Angel's jibe and continued on his way outside, he went to alley they found Buffy in just mere days ago. Kicking up a small chunk of rubble from under his shoe he tipped over a trashcan and covered his face up with his hands. Keeping as silent as one could, he cried. Something he's been holding in since he'd found Buffy. The one person he loved (apart from Drusilla) had just been killed and given a life of eternal torment and there was nothing he could do to save her. It wasn't fair, however when you'd been around as long as he had, nothing was ever fair. The only thing that came to mind to help Buffy was to get back at Giles. There wasn't really a way to do that without hurting Buffy though, so he couldn't. He couldn't do anything and he hated himself for it.

--

"Angel?" Buffy asked, after putting the phone down. Dawn had of course been shocked as upset when Buffy revealed the details of her whereabouts but reassured when she knew she was getting cared for. Angel looked up expectantly hoping he could help Buffy out somehow, he wanted to do something… anything at all to get his mind off things.

"Yes?" he asked, closing the book he was previously lost in.

"When did Spike come back?" she asked and his heart sank a little.

"About a year ago." He admitted and her eyes sparked for a moment with something that greatly reminded Angel of the look Cordelia got when she was pissed off.

"And when did you plan on telling me about this?" she asked angrily.

"I… I just didn't think it was that important… not with everything you were dealing with after all." Angel was making it up as he went along now, anything to repress the wrath of Buffy.

"Not important? Spike came back from Hell but you didn't think it was important?" she placed her hands on her hips "You're just super helpful aren't you?" she spat out.

"You were busy!" Angel fought back defensively

"Yeah and now I'm dead!" she fought back the tears in her eyes.

"That has nothing to do with Spike! And why are you yelling at me?" Angel wished someone else was here to get him out the situation but knew he was going to have to settle this on his own.

"Because you're supposed to help me! You're supposed to be the champion!" she screamed, the tears flowing freely down her cheeks.

"I'm trying, if you haven't noticed I'm not exactly an expert on slayers-turned-vampire!" he growled at her and she flew at him.

"For God's sake Angel help me!" she sobbed, hitting weakly at his chest in a desperate attempt to make him help her. Clutching at his chest as the feeling in her legs went numb

"It's okay." Angel said, placing a hand on the back of her head.

"No it's not! I'm not supposed to feel like this! What's Dawn gonna do now that she can't come near her own sister because I might accidentally kill her?" she asked, thrashing wildly in his grip "and what about Giles, I'm a vampire now… he'll stake me Angel! He won't care if I'm the Slayer or not, he's got dozens of replacements now doesn't he!" she wailed and sobbed into his dress shirt as he hesitantly hushed her like she were just a small child.

"No ones gonna hurt you…" he assured her "not with me protecting you… not with…Spike protecting you… I promise." He said hoisting her back onto her own tow feet, she looked up at him hopefully.

"You mean it?" she double checked quickly

"Gotta fight for something… since the city's gone… you're our priority now…" he said, a bit annoyed of including Spike, but knowing the more people on her side the better she would feel right now.

"Thank you." She whispered into his shirt as they pulled each other into a tender – yet friendly - embrace.

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